Scraper Sites Beware
When Google launched its comprehensive Panda update earlier this year, one of the aspects of the search experience that they wanted to change was so many site listings with nothing but "scraped" content.
Scraped content is that which is just taken from somewhere else. For example, the blog world is notorious for scrapers. They simply use feeds of information from other blogs and sites around the Web for content. Nothing new or interesting is added, and it's no more than "duplicate" content.
There has been major controversy over the years about duplicate content, and marketers all over the Internet have been the major perpetrators of it. But that isn't entirely their fault. It used to be that any link from another site to your own was a good link. Not so today. Now, linking needs to be from one quality site to another, and not necessarily reciprocal to do any good.
So, what was the tip off that Google is planning to crack down hard on scrapers? The Panda algorithm update was the first clue, but check out this tweet sent out August 26 from Matt Cutts, Google's head of the Web Spam team, and well-known spokesperson:
Why all the fuss? It's simple. Google wants its search clients to get quality results. Duplicate content showing up in several places on their search results pages isn't quality, and well... I won't say I told you so, but I've been down on dupe content for years. I've debated the issue with many of the big-name marketers you know, and they all told me that it didn't matter.
But it does, and today, it means more than ever. Just don't do it! Stop flooding article directories with your poorly written garbage just to get that backlink (yes, when Panda hit, even the big sites like Ezine Articles and Hub Pages were hit hard), and start giving the world the benefit of your quality information. Even if you write about the same topic as someone else, write it in your own words and give the world your perspective. That's all Google really wants.
And when you give Google what Google wants... Your search rankings improve dramatically and you get the benefit of all that great, targeted search traffic right to your door. Isn't it worth a little effort?
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